Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. Sleep is also a heightened anabolic state, accentuating the growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. Sleep is often thought to help conserve energy, regenerate body strength, allow the body to heal itself and/or recover from injury or illness, or simply permits one to rest. Thus, getting a right amount of uninterrupted sleep can be paramount to one's health and ability to function. Some scientific studies suggested that an adult should get between seven to eight hours of sleep every night to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It has also been shown that a reduced amount of sleep leads to an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents, an increase in body mass index, i.e., a greater likelihood of obesity due to an increased appetite caused by sleep deprivation, an increased risk of diabetes and heart problems, an increased risk for psychiatric conditions including depression and substance abuse, a decreased ability to pay attention, react to signals or remember new information.
Sleep interruption results in a reduced amount of sleep that one may be getting, and thus may cause to the above described issues. One of the common causes of sleep interruption is noise that may be present in the area surrounding one's sleeping quarters or location. Such noise can be a street noise (e.g., cars driving by, blaring sirens of emergency vehicles, dogs barking, etc.), snoring, noisy neighbors, etc. and/or any combination of the above. To prevent sleep interruption, various solutions have been implemented. One includes ear plugs that one can put into his/her ears prior to going to sleep. However, ear plugs can be bulky, generate some discomfort or even painful for the user, and have to be replaced often for sanitary reasons, thereby making them very costly. Other solutions included white noise music and/or sleep machines that generate various soothing sounds. However, while capable of drowning some noise, such machines/music are still incapable of taking out other persistent noises (e.g., snoring, street noise, noisy neighbors), and hence, do not present a viable solution. Others have uses pouch-type pillows and/or straps that wrap one's head in a pillow to block outside noise. These solutions, while may be somewhat effective in reducing the noise, are not designed to allow their user to move freely during sleep while still blocking the desired amount of noise. Also, such solutions may increase one's head temperature as well as provide a greater risk of suffocation in the event that the user turns in an undesired way.
Thus, there is a need for a solution that is capable of providing desired noise suppression or reduction during one's sleep that allows its user to freely move around during sleep while providing the requisite noise suppression/reduction.